First off I would like to congratulate all of the presenters and organizers of the 2014 CAP Student Conference on a job well done. I was extremely impressed by the calliper of the presenters, and their courageousness to present their work in front of their peers and the CAP faculty. I found the conference very interesting, as it offered an opportunity for a cross disciplinary as well as cross CAP stream dialogue. While I found my Global Citizens peer’s presentations very intriguing, I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into the tripe sod work the other streams were doing, and was surprised to discover our work was not all that different. I noted while watching the presentations that many of the main concepts that we discuss in our classes with Global Citizens came up in student’s work from other streams. Some of the main abstractions I found repeated frequently included ideas such as “space and place”, identity, representation (particularly in the media), and power.

In our ASTU 100 class, we have been examined the idea of representation in many ways, such as how individuals and groups of people are represented in the media. This topic was discussed by Helen Wagner a student in the Law and Society stream. Her presentation titled “National Geographic and the Photographic Gaze: The Commodification of Indigenous peoples in Consumer Culture” looked at how National Geographic represents indigenous peoples in the magazine through photographs, expressing that they are represented as “others” and “exoticized”. She started off by showing the January 2014 cover of the magazine (pictured left), and expressed her initial concern when she saw the cover photo as there was no depiction of the child or name. Wagner emphasized that many issues that lie in the exoticization of indigenous peoples, and that such problems are a result of producing the magazine for a western consumer audience.

I noted further connections between Global Citizens topics and students in other CAP streams work in the second “Canadian Voices and Social Space” panel that discussed the occupy movement. Not only did we talked about the politics and ideology behind the occupy movement in both Political Science and Sociology, but the panel also emphasized the idea of space, which was similar to our discussion of space and place in Geography as well as the power of social media, like we discussed in ASTU. This panel looked at the occupy movement in three different ways, highlighting the power and significance of public space, the power of shared ideas as well as the use of media to build a community.

In 2010 the Native Women’s Association of Canada initiative called Sisters in Sprit created a database of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, listing 582 cases. While the oldest case dates back to 1944, majority of the cases they researched were recent, with 39% of all the cases between 2000 and 2010. Though this data is a few years old, Cheryl Maloney (the president of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association) said in a CBC article that “Aboriginal women are still five times more likely to be violently attacked than non aboriginal people.” Ultimately this issue is still very prevalent in society, as seen by the very recent, tragic story of Loretta Saunders, a 26 year old St. Mary’s University student who was murdered by her two former roommates. Saunders was an Inuk woman, who was writing a thesis on missing and murdered indigenous women specifically in Nova Scotia. As an aboriginal woman herself she was very involved with the issue, and as Darryl Leroux (her thesis supervisor) said,“she had a passion for supporting indigenous youth [to] overcome the many barriers they face.”

Her body was found just two days ago, and so as the most recent missing and murdered women case her story exemplifies how pressing the issue of violence against aboriginal women is all across the country in our current society. I noticed that in many of the articles about her death by different news outlets there seemed to be a common pattern of family, political figures and groups such as The Assembly of First Nations calling for action on the issue of missing and murdered women. In a CTV article the Assembly of First Nations Chief Sean Altleo, said in response to Saunders death, “this is a call to action that this must end now. We cannot add one more name to the list of murdered or missing women. We need to see action by all parties to end violence, to respect and honour women and families, to ensure our communities are safe and secure for all.”

This call for action has even been taken up by Amnesty international in partnership with Sisters in Spirit in a campaign called “No More Stolen Sisters: Justice for the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada”. They call for a movement of truth and justice and have also called upon the government to act in order to stop violence against women. Ultimately this issue is not only a social issue but a human rights issue that effects the whole country, and so it is important that groups such as Amnesty International, and the Assembly of First Nations speak out to make their voices heard.

In Naomi Angel’s article, “Before Truth: The Labors of Testimony and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission” she discusses testimony, memory, and remembering in relation to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Though we had discussed the TRC earlier in the year in ASTU as well as in Sociology,  reading this article now after gaining more of an understanding of issues related to the TRC (such as remembering, identity, and silences) made me look at the issue differently. One of the main points that I took away from the article was the connected roles of being both a witness and testifier of trauma. In relation to Angel’s article one definition of being a witness could be that someone has gone through and experienced oppression, “surviving violent conflict and injustice” (Angel 200). While a definition of being a testifier could be, someone who breaks the silence of the oppression, there by giving voice to the “long denied” ( Angel 200).

In the article it is brought up that naturally people can “occupy this dual role” (Angel 200), especially through initiatives such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission National events, the Belkin Art gallery exhibit – “Witness: Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools”, as well as the exhibit “Speaking to Memory: Images and Voices from St. Michael’s Residential School” at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). In all three of these initiatives aboriginal people can both voice their stories and highlight the fact that they have experienced oppression, there by occupying both the role of the witness and testifier. I found this to be particularly true at the MOA exhibit, because of the way the space allowed for aboriginal people affected by the St. Michael’s residential school to take on both roles. On one wall there were quotes from some of the students of the school, as direct testimony of their experience, and on a second wall facing the quotes hung pictures taken by Beverly Brown, as photographic testimony of the children who witnessed the atrocities, but may not outright testify their experiences. 

One of Beverly Brown’s photographs on display in the exhibit “Speaking to Memory: Images and Voices from St. Michael’s Residential School” at MOA.

What I found very interesting in Angel’s article was the explanation of a third role – listener. She writes that “in many cases, non – indigenous Canadians were not the intended audience for these testimonies. Indigenous family members and communities were often the direct audience with non – indigenous Canadians playing an in direct secondary role as listeners.” ( Angel  209) I found that this idea could be applied to Wah’s Diamond Grill, because of the way the novel’s intend audience appears to be his family, and people who too feel as through they are “living in the hyphen” (Wah 53). Wah writes the testimony of his life, and families life directed to his family, while other readers could be perceived as the “listener” to his story, much like some of the TRC events. It becomes apparent that all there roles: witness, testifier and listener are needed in order to work towards reconciliation.

In my ASTU 100 class we recently had the exciting opportunity to work in Rare Books and Special Collections here at UBC; an archive that contains “significant collections of rare books, archival materials, historic maps, photographs, broadsides and pamphlets” (rbsc.library.ubc.ca) focusing on British Columbia’s history. On our first day in the RBSC reading room we were encouraged to take a look at all of the archival material laid out in order to get a sense of what each collection was about. Though each collection I looked at was interesting and meaningful to the province’s history, the collection that I found especially intriguing was the Chung Collection.

This collection was gathered by Dr. Chung over 60 years, and includes archival material that pertains to “early British Columbia history, immigration and settlement, particularly of Chinese people in North America, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.” (chung.library.ubc.ca) Dr. Chung was able to collect over 25 000 items such as immigration papers and photographs, and then personally donated his collection to the UBC library so that “as many people as possible can have the opportunity to understand and appreciate the struggles and joys of those who have come before them.” (chung.library.ubc.ca)

The one piece of archival material that struck me the most from the Chung Collection was a red and green “royal tartan” journal that had a cameo of Queen Alexandra on the front. Among head tax documents and immigration papers, this item’s appearance was so distinguishably representative of English culture, and upon examining it’s contents, so was what was written inside. It contained pages of english handwritten letters that had been copied from correspondents between people of a high class in society. It included phrases such as, “Uncle George called last night and took us for a sleigh ride.” This line was found on a page in which the letter was written on the 20th of April 1902, and at the bottom was addressed from “your loving little girl, Melly.” The purpose of these journals were for Chinese people that had immigrated to Canada to learn english by copying letters in the journal, repeatedly. Often a letter was copied down 2, 3, sometimes 4 times.

I found the initial juxtaposition bizarre; this journal that without any context would appear to be the possession of an upper class white person, along side collections of papers outlining the head tax and immigration. Considering Chinese immigrants to Canada in the early 1900’s faced such severe prosecution and racism, reading this journal that was written by Chinese person but contained content that was so remarkable ‘white’ was thought provoking. It reminded me of the idea in Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill, of “faking it.” Opposed to some of the examples in Diamond grill where “faking it” was more of an open “performance”, these journals could be considered a form of “faking it” because of the way in which they are an example of Chinese people being assimilated and indoctrinated into “Canadian culture.” Copying down the letters served as a way to not only learn english but could also be thought of as a way for these new immigrants to learn things that the ‘white people’ did in order to fit into mainstream society. These journals could be thought to represent a need to ‘fit in’.

Fred Wah‘s “biofictional” novel, Diamond Grill captivates Wah’s memories growing up as a mixed raced Canadian, and his family’s history. The novel explores such themes as family, culture, race, and belonging, as well as how these  factors affect his sense of identity. It is the structure of the book that exemplifies his personal struggle and his families collective struggle with identity. Wah dedicated the book “to Fred, Connie and Ethal. For family.” this dedication is evident in the way he not only writes the novel but structures it. The characters receive little introduction, if any because Wah is writing the book not with the audience in mind but rather for  himself and his family. It is structured as 144 short – often one page chapters, that mix up the timeline and story, each page reflecting a different memory or thought. Through the collection of short isolated anecdotes Wah attempts to understand his father’s life, in order to come to terms with his own identity. Unlike more conventional biographies, Diamond grill mixes up separate story lines, recipes, descriptions and family histories that together form a biography representative of Wah’s life. It would seem that the disorderly nature of the “biotext” reflects Wah’s feelings of confusion, as he comes to term with his racial identity.

Wah’s novel is not only a reflection of his own life and struggles, but in the larger picture a commentary on Canadian society. Ultimately his experience of racism from other people as well as his internalized racism is a result of how society marginalizes people based on their race. Fred grew up in the fifties in small town Nelson BC, where racism and prejudice towards Chinese people was widespread. Wah, who is 1/2 Swedish, 1/4 Chinese, 1/8 Irish and 1/8 Scottish, discusses his struggle with his identity as other people tried to tell him what he was. He discusses how when filling out a form in school that asked what his racial origin was, “[he] thought well this is Canada, I’ll put down Canadian. But the teacher said no Freddy you’re Chinese, your racial origin is Chinese…” (53). Wah continues by saying how in the school yard the Chinese kids though of him as foreigner, and so he ended up playing against them since he was “white enough to play on the winning team.” (53). It is this back and forth of being told by people that he was Chinese, or being considered white that caused Wah to be unsure of his identity. He was constantly being categorized, and judged by society, which as a result lead him to not feeling accepted.

Wah further discusses this in the documentary film Between: Living in the Hyphen which was produced in 2004. This recent film exemplifies how racsim is still very affluent in Canada. The seven mix raced Canadians (including Fred Wah ) that are featured in this film express having felt a lack of belongingness in what was described by one of the individuals as “an either or world.” Both Diamond Grill and Between: Living in the Hyphen exemplify how society treats people of mixed race, marginalizing, and making someone who isn’t “pure” feel like a “resident alien, living in the hyphen.” (Wah 53)

This first semester of ASTU was eye opening. I learned more about life narratives in three short months than I even though there was to know about them. Though I had read many life narratives before starting this class, I had never really throughout about the “so what?” It was this encouragement to think deeper and analyze work more critically that I found the most significant. Though a hard hard concept to get used to at first it is one of the things that is transforming me from a high school writer to a ‘scholar’.

My ability to analyze life narratives was at first hindered by my confusion of new scholarly terms that at the time seemed like they were being thrown at us. Abstractions, reporting expressions, gists, low level detail, it was over whelming and hard to adjust to. But it was through the analysis of “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi that things started to come together for my understanding, starting me on my path to becoming  scholarly writer.

One of the main abstractions we talked about was witnessing, and the way life narratives act as an outlet of witnessing for the protagonists as well as a way for reader to ‘witness’ their trauma. What I found most interesting about this concept was that it not only related to “Persepolis” but it came back constantly through out our examination of other trauma life narratives. In “Persepolis” we examined how Marjane uses the form of graphic novels as a way for her to witness the trauma she faced as a child. Her telling of her story acted as a mode of remembering, which we also saw in the novel “What is the What” – the auto biography of Valentino Achak Deng. This novel written by Dave Eggars, is structured in such a way as to show how Valentino remembers his traumatic childhood through the telling of his story.

Through this study of “Persepolis”, and “What is the What” along with other scholarly articles and other forms of life narration, I was able to discover the genre of life narratives as more than just the act of autobiography. Life narratives proved to be a powerful tool, not only for the people expressing their story but also for human rights initiatives and humanitarian issues. I also was able to understand the issues around them and how they act as “soft weapons” (Whitlock) – powerful, but easy to be manipulated to appeal to consumers in the Western market.

I look forward to term two, when I will be able to continue this discovery of life narratives, focusing next on local narratives. In term one we explored life narratives of people who faced hardship predominantly in the ‘east’, and so I think it will be very interesting to compare and contrast these with works that focus on the stories of people from the Vancouver area. I hope to further my ability to produce scholarly work, and knowledge of the intriguing genre of life narratives.

The documentary “God Grew Tired of Us” serves as a powerful life narrative of the “lost boys” who seek refuge in the United States from their life in the Kakuma refugee camp. The film focuses on three men – John, Daniel and Panther, following their new lives in a foreign country. The culture shock is instantly apparent as the film shows their reaction to electricity and running water in their apartment. But the film also subtly suggests cultural differences, like the lack of community importance in the US. The film follows the boys as they struggle with their identity, and dealing with their past in a new country.

This film is structured by dispersing interviews with the boys throughout the narration of their story by Nicole Kidman. It made me question though, why aren’t the boys narrating their own story? The answer is simply because of star power. This film was not only narrated by Nicole Kidman, but the executive producer was Brad Pitt, and by having such big hollywood names the movie would have likely gotten more leverage and publicity in the market. Nicole Kidman added a celebrity aspect to the movie, and would likely make people more interested in a documentary, rather than if the lost boys narrated it.

It seems that increasingly in the west by having a celebrities name attached to a humanitarian cause, the issue automatically gets more attention and often therefore money to benefit the cause. Using celebrities for campaigns has a strong impact, but do pose some ethical questions. Celebrities can take away from the importance of the issue, as they are gaining publicity as well by doing these humanitarian initiatives. NYU Economist Bill Easterly says that, “[celebrities in support of aid efforts] amplify the simplistic idea of the basket case that is Africa. A homogeneous place that is in need of benevolent outsiders, and celebrities, to save destitute children. Most importantly, current celebrities do not challenge the power structures that perpetuate poverty.” (http://www.humanosphere.org/2013/09/the-marginal-impact-of-celebrity-on-humanitarian-campaigns/)

Furthermore, according to the popular website Wikipedia, this film stars, “John Dau, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Abul Pach, and Panther Boir.” Reading this made me pause, as I thought, “Nicole Kidman?”, I knew she was the narrator of the film but it didn’t seem right that she would be listed as a star beside the three men who the film revolves around. Not only that but within the list of stars she is number two. By her being listed as a star it seemed to de tract some of the significance of Panther, John and Daniel, and their story. When we watched the movie I honestly didn’t even know she was the narrator until the end. I understand that she did play an important role in the film and should be credited for her work, but that title of ‘star’ just seemed out of place.

In October my ASTU class was introduced to a blog called “Baghdad Burning” written by an Iraqi women who uses the web name Riverbend. This blog is a narrative of what life was like during the American occupation of Iraq, reflecting on politics and Iraqi culture. Riverbend’s blog proves to be a testament to the strength of the Iraqi’s, because of the way it depicts daily horrors people had to face during the war, such as bombings, power outages, extreme violence and death.

Though all of Riverbend’s posts are interesting, I wanted to examine the specific example of a post entitled “American Heroes…” posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 at 9:37 pm. This post (which I have linked below) starts off with the depiction of a scene where a “mosque is strewn with bodies of Iraqis.” Riverbend then goes on to describe the brutality of the American Marines, as one of them shots a “seemingly dead man”, and says matter-of-factly, “he’s dead now.” She reveals that her family had watched this scene unfold on the news, even her young cousin. The small girl is shocked by watching this and ask, “Is he dead? Did they kill him?” It becomes clear the moral dilemma the adults are posed with by this question. Though the true answer was, “yes darling, they killed him,” it pains Riverbend’s cousin to have to tell his daughter the truth. A child should not be subject to witnessing such violence, never mind live in a country engulfed war, where such atrocities have sadly become common place.

It is this idea of such atrocities becoming common place that seems to trouble Riverbend the most. That an American solider who were supposedly there to free the Iraqi’s from their ‘terrible political state’ committed such brutal acts of violence against helpless Iraqis. It becomes apparent that this was the reality of the invasion though, and that this was not an isolated event. It also become clear that but that these type events were not only tolerated, but blatantly covered up. After all the Americans were supposed to be heroes, liberating the Iraqi people, although the reality was that many of them were actually “murderers.”

“Bagdad Burning”, written in english is very clearly directed towards a western audience, and so something important to point out about this specific post is how it begins. The family is depicted watching the news report of the event, as if removed from the war like westerners. The main difference though lies in the actual content of what would have been show to its audience. Where Riverbend and her family witness an American soldier kill a hopeless man, Americans were supposed to be in support of the war and lead to believe the soldiers going over seas to Iraqi were American heroes. Riverbend suggests that Americans were perceiving the invasion the wrong way, and so she blatantly directs the reality of the invasion to an American audience when she writes, “the people slaughtering Iraqis- torturing in prisons and shooting wounded prisoners- are “American Heroes”. Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourselves today.”

It is blogs like “Bagdad Burning” and a similar blog – “Where’s Read” that work as life narratives to provide truth. Blogs that have little market incentive,and so uncomodifyed these life narratives are very powerful literary works. Though directed to a western audience these blogs are written by someone living through the war and updated as the war evolves resulting in an honest depiction of the struggle.

Link to Riverbend’s blog post “American Heroes”, click here: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.ca/2004_11_01_archive.html

Link to the blog “Where is Raed?”, click here: http://dear_raed.blogspot.ca

At the tender age of 8, I was captivated by Deborah Ellis’s novels The Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey, and Mud City – A trilogy inspired from a story that an Afghani woman had told Ellis while she was visiting a refugee camp in 1996. This woman told Ellis of her young  daughter who didn’t live with her in the refugee camp but rather had to disguise herself as a boy in order to provide for her family. Ellis was inspired by the interview and based her novels on Parvana, and her plight as a child in the war torn country of Afghanistan. These novels though fictionalized are important comodifyied examples of traumatic life narratives of children, specifically produced for an audience of western children.

These novels were revolutionary to my thinking of the world as a child. At such young age, I was inherently less aware of the world outside of my own ‘world’. I didn’t know much about global issues or the plight of children like Parvana, and so by reading these novels I realized how different other kids lives were to my own. Reading Ellis’s novels made me empathetic to not only Parvana’s tale, but sparked my curiosity. I began to read more stories of children who faced hardships, and in the process got quickly enthralled in the genre.

In an interview with Deborah Ellis from the website Papertigers, Ellis says, “some of the things I heard from kids [in the Afghani refugee camp] formed the basis for the Breadwinner novels.”  Ellis only bases the books off of a few anecdotes from children as well as the mother in the refugee camp, and therefore had to create much of the story herself. Novels like Debroah Ellis’s The breadwinner pose questions about the genre of life narratives, and what defines a life narrative versus a fictional novel.

The breadwinner is a very powerful story of the trauma Afganhi children faced during the war and because of its success was able to bring light to these social issues. The problem is thought that most of the novel was in fact fictionalized; manipulated and co-opted for a western audience. It served as a “soft weapon” (Whitlock), comodifyed for a specific audience of western children, but powerful none the less.

Ellis says, “We create the world we want to see,” which is exactly what comodifyed life narratives for a western audience do; they shape how the west sees the world. By producing narratives for a western audience the stories are often shaped a certain way in order to be the most successful in western markets, often disregarding authenticity of the story, posing questions about the ethics of these comodifyed works. For this reason fictionalized life narratives such as The Breadwinner face a lot of controversy, and the reader of these novels should keep in mind that the truth is often stretched in order to be successful in the markets.

Click here for an interview with Deborah Ellis, entitled “The Power of One Voice”, which goes into more detail some of her works and writing process.

Eli Pariser’s Ted Talk – Beware Online “Filter Bubbles” raises the important issue of the personalization service of web companies like Google, yahoo news and Facebook, and why users of the internet should be weary of this new phenomenon. He talks about the “invisible algorithmic editing of the web” that tailors what you see online, resulting in what Pariser describes as a “filter bubble”. He emphasizes how little control users of the internet have to decide what they see, because of these algorithms, and how ultimately this customization is in fact not beneficial to us.

The internet is known to be a way for the world to connect, but because of this new system of filtering we are becoming less exposed to certain information resulting in what Pariser describes as a “web of one”. These filters exclude things you wouldn’t typically click on, which is in turn restricting us from broadening our horizons by seeing different points of view, and getting a greater understanding of the world. It is always important to see ‘both sides of the story’ before forming an opinion, but these online filters are inhibiting our ability to do this. The alarming aspect of this system is that many people don’t even realize its happening, and so it could become very easy to unconsciously form certain biases based of your “web of one”. One of the most important things Pariser noted about the filter bubble is that it is a reflection of yourself, but the problem is that we can’t see what gets edited out; we don’t know what we aren’t seeing.

After watching the video, I became more observant of this ‘service’ in action, and started to noticed this customization in my own use of the internet. The one way I noticed it most obviously was with Facebook. I came across this advertisement for two different concerts on my Facebook page last weekend (screenshot below) and it struck me.  I had not ‘liked’ either of the artists on my own Facebook profile, yet here were two different ads one on top of the other of two concerts that I would in fact be attending in the following weeks. I realized in the days leading up to this occurrence I had been searching the respective artists online and so the algorithm must have detected this repetitive searching, resulting in an advertisement on my Facebook page that it ‘thought’ I would be interested in. This example of the algorithm at work, showing how our personal tastes are being tailored to, but in the process leaving out things that could broaden our horizons.

Pariser’s presentation made me really think about what the future of the internet will look like, an idea exemplified by this quote by Mark Zuckerberg, “A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.” This quote though sadly accurate, shows how influential people of web companies like Mark Zukerberg the chairman and chief executive of Facebook justify the personalizing of internet websites. People are often more interested in local problems because these issues can directly affect their lives, while something going on half way across the world doesn’t affect their day to day going-ons and so one is inherently less interested. Sites like Facebook use filters in order to just show people what they want to see, but it is important that even though someone isn’t as interested in say global issues, they are still aware of them. The problem with the filtering of search engines and new sites, is that this information that we may find less interesting will just stop showing up, resulting a world of people who are only aware of things that interest them, and therefore narrow-minded.